The United States will not allow Tehran to possess nuclear weapons, a White House official told Iran International on Monday, hours after Iran's Supreme Leader suggested Washington has no authority to decide what Tehran does with its nuclear capabilities.
"President Trump has always been clear: the world’s number one state sponsor of terror can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon," the White House official told Iran International in reaction to Ali Khamenei's remarks.
In his comments on Monday morning, Iran's 86-year-old ruler said the United States is in no position "to dictate whether a country should or should not have a nuclear industry."
"What does it have to do with America whether Iran has nuclear facilities or not? These interventions are inappropriate, wrong and coercive," Khamenei said.
The Supreme Leader also rejected an offer of renewed talks from US President Donald Trump, saying, “He claims to be a man of deals, but if a deal is accompanied by coercion and its outcome is predetermined, it is not a deal but an imposition and bullying. The Iranian nation will not bow to such impositions.”
In response to Khamenei's defiant remarks, the White House official told Iran International, "As the President stated, 'even to Iran, whose regime has inflicted so much death on the Middle East, the hand of friendship and cooperation is always open.'"
“There's nothing that would do more good for this part of the world than for Iran's leaders to renounce terrorists...and finally recognize Israel's right to existence," the official said, quoting Trump's remarks in his recent speech at the Israeli parliament.
